Part IB, {{ year }}
Part IB 2020
Paper 2, Section I,
Part IB, 2020 commentLet be the collection of subsets of of the form , where is an arbitrary complex polynomial. Show that is a topology on .
Given topological spaces and , define the product topology on . Equip with the topology given by the product of with itself. Let be an arbitrary two-variable complex polynomial. Is the subset always open in this topology? Justify your answer.
Paper 1, Section II, E
Part IB, 2020 commentState what it means for a function to be differentiable at a point , and define its derivative
Let be the vector space of real-valued matrices, and let be given by . Show that is differentiable at any , and calculate its derivative.
State the inverse function theorem for a function . In the case when and , prove the existence of a continuous local inverse function in a neighbourhood of 0 . [The rest of the proof of the inverse function theorem is not expected.]
Show that there exists a positive such that there is a continuously differentiable function such that . Is it possible to find a continuously differentiable inverse to on the whole of ? Justify your answer.
Paper 1, Section II, C
Part IB, 2020 commentSteady two-dimensional potential flow of an incompressible fluid is confined to the wedge , where are polar coordinates centred on the vertex of the wedge and .
(a) Show that a velocity potential of the form
where and are positive constants, satisfies the condition of incompressible flow, provided that and satisfy a certain relation to be determined.
Assuming that , the -component of velocity, does not change sign within the wedge, determine the values of and by using the boundary conditions.
(b) Calculate the shape of the streamlines of this flow, labelling them by the distance of closest approach to the vertex. Sketch the streamlines.
(c) Show that the speed and pressure are independent of . Assuming that at some radius the speed and pressure are and , respectively, find the pressure difference in the flow between the vertex of the wedge and .
[Hint: In polar coordinates ,
for a scalar and a vector .]
Paper 2, Section II, C
Part IB, 2020 commentA vertical cylindrical container of radius is partly filled with fluid of constant density to depth . The free surface is perturbed so that the fluid occupies the region
where are cylindrical coordinates and is the perturbed height of the free surface. For small perturbations, a linearised description of surface waves in the cylinder yields the following system of equations for and the velocity potential :
(a) Describe briefly the physical meaning of each equation.
(b) Consider axisymmetric normal modes of the form
Show that the system of equations admits a solution for of the form
where is an arbitrary amplitude, satisfies the equation
the wavenumber is such that is one of the zeros of the function , and the function should be determined explicitly.
(c) Show that the frequency of the -th mode is given by
where the function is to be determined.
[Hint: In cylindrical coordinates ,
Paper 1, Section I, E
Part IB, 2020 commentDefine the Gauss map of a smooth embedded surface. Consider the surface of revolution with points
for . Let be the Gauss map of . Describe on the cross-section of , and use this to write down an explicit formula for .
Let be the upper hemisphere of the 2 -sphere , and the Gauss curvature of . Calculate .
Paper 1, Section II, E
Part IB, 2020 commentLet be the curve in the -plane defined by the equation
Sketch , taking care with inflection points.
Let be the surface of revolution in given by spinning about the -axis. Write down an equation defining . Stating any result you use, show that is a smooth embedded surface.
Let be the radial coordinate on the -plane. Show that the Gauss curvature of vanishes when . Are these the only points at which the Gauss curvature of vanishes? Briefly justify your answer.
Paper 2, Section II, F
Part IB, 2020 commentLet be the hyperbolic half-plane with the metric . Define the length of a continuously differentiable curve in with respect to .
What are the hyperbolic lines in ? Show that for any two distinct points in , the infimum of the lengths (with respect to ) of curves from to is attained by the segment of the hyperbolic line with an appropriate parameterisation.
The 'hyperbolic Pythagoras theorem' asserts that if a hyperbolic triangle has angle at then
where are the lengths of the sides , respectively.
Let and be two hyperbolic lines in such that
Prove that the distance is attained by the points of intersection with a hyperbolic line that meets each of orthogonally. Give an example of two hyperbolic lines and such that the infimum of is not attained by any .
[You may assume that every Möbius transformation that maps H onto itself is an isometry of
Paper 2, Section I, G
Part IB, 2020 commentAssume a group acts transitively on a set and that the size of is a prime number. Let be a normal subgroup of that acts non-trivially on .
Show that any two -orbits of have the same size. Deduce that the action of on is transitive.
Let and let denote the stabiliser of in . Show that if is trivial, then there is a bijection under which the action of on by conjugation corresponds to the action of on .
Paper 1, Section II, G
Part IB, 2020 commentState the structure theorem for a finitely generated module over a Euclidean domain in terms of invariant factors.
Let be a finite-dimensional vector space over a field and let be a linear map. Let denote the -module with acting as . Apply the structure theorem to to show the existence of a basis of with respect to which has the rational canonical form. Prove that the minimal polynomial and the characteristic polynomial of can be expressed in terms of the invariant factors. [Hint: For the characteristic polynomial apply suitable row operations.] Deduce the Cayley-Hamilton theorem for .
Now assume that has matrix with respect to the basis of . Let be the free -module of rank with free basis and let be the unique homomorphism with for . Using the fact, which you need not prove, that ker is generated by the elements , find the invariant factors of in the case that and is represented by the real matrix
with respect to the standard basis.
Paper 2, Section II, G
Part IB, 2020 commentState Gauss' lemma. State and prove Eisenstein's criterion.
Define the notion of an algebraic integer. Show that if is an algebraic integer, then is a principal ideal generated by a monic, irreducible polynomial.
Let . Show that is a field. Show that is an integral domain, but not a field. Justify your answers.
Paper 1, Section I, F
Part IB, 2020 commentDefine what it means for two matrices and to be similar. Define the Jordan normal form of a matrix.
Determine whether the matrices
are similar, carefully stating any theorem you use.
Paper 1, Section II, F
Part IB, 2020 commentLet denote the vector space of matrices over a field or . What is the of a matrix ?
Show, stating accurately any preliminary results that you require, that if and only if is non-singular, i.e. .
Does have a basis consisting of non-singular matrices? Justify your answer.
Suppose that an matrix is non-singular and every entry of is either 0 or 1. Let be the largest possible number of 1 's in such an . Show that . Is this bound attained? Justify your answer.
[Standard properties of the adjugate matrix can be assumed, if accurately stated.]
Paper 2, Section II, E
Part IB, 2020 commentLet be the space of continuous real-valued functions on , and let be the metrics on it given by
Show that id : is a continuous map. Do and induce the same topology on ? Justify your answer.
Let denote for any the uniform metric on . Let be the subspace of real polynomials of degree at most . Define a Lipschitz map between two metric spaces, and show that evaluation at a point gives a Lipschitz map . Hence or otherwise find a bijection from to which is Lipschitz and has a Lipschitz inverse.
Let be the subset of polynomials with values in the range .
(i) Show that is compact.
(ii) Show that and induce the same topology on .
Any theorems that you use should be clearly stated.
[You may use the fact that for distinct constants , the following matrix is invertible:
Paper 2, Section II, F
Part IB, 2020 commentLet be a finite-dimensional vector space over a field. Show that an endomorphism of is idempotent, i.e. , if and only if is a projection onto its image.
Determine whether the following statements are true or false, giving a proof or counterexample as appropriate:
(i) If , then is idempotent.
(ii) The condition is equivalent to being idempotent.
(iii) If and are idempotent and such that is also idempotent, then .
(iv) If and are idempotent and , then is also idempotent.
Paper 2, Section I, H
Part IB, 2020 commentLet be a Markov chain with state space and transition matrix
where . Compute . Find the value of .
Paper 1, Section II, H
Part IB, 2020 commentLet be a Markov chain with transition matrix . What is a stopping time of ? What is the strong Markov property?
A porter is trying to apprehend a student who is walking along a long narrow path at night. Being unaware of the porter, the student's location at time evolves as a simple symmetric random walk on . The porter's initial location is units to the right of the student, so where . The future locations of the porter evolve as follows: The porter moves to the left (so ) with probability , and to the right with probability whenever . When , the porter's probability of moving left changes to , and the probability of moving right is .
(a) By setting up an appropriate Markov chain, show that for , the expected time for the porter to be a distance away from the student is .
(b) Show that the expected time for the porter to catch the student, i.e. for their locations to coincide, is
[You may use without proof the fact that the time for the porter to catch the student is finite with probability 1 for any .]
Paper 2, Section I, B
Part IB, 2020 commentFind the Fourier transform of the function
Determine the convolution of the function with itself.
State the convolution theorem for Fourier transforms. Using it, or otherwise, determine the Fourier transform of the function
Paper 1, Section II, B
Part IB, 2020 commentConsider the equation
on the two-dimensional strip , where is the delta function and is a smooth function satisfying satisfies the boundary conditions and . By using solutions of Laplace's equation for and , matched suitably at , find the solution of in terms of Fourier coefficients of .
Find the solution of in the limiting case , where , and hence determine the Green's function in the strip, satisfying
and the same boundary conditions as before.
Paper 2, Section II, A
Part IB, 2020 comment(i) The solution to the equation
that is regular at the origin is , where is a real, positive parameter, is a Bessel function, and is an arbitrary constant. The Bessel function has infinitely many zeros: with , for . Show that
(where and are real and positive) and deduce that
[Hint: For the second identity, consider and with small.]
(ii) The displacement of the membrane of a circular drum of unit radius obeys
where is the radial coordinate on the membrane surface, is time (in certain units), and the displacement is assumed to have no angular dependence. At the drum is struck, so that
where and are constants. Show that the subsequent motion is given by
Paper 1, Section I, C
Part IB, 2020 comment(a) Find an factorisation of the matrix
where the diagonal elements of are .
(b) Use this factorisation to solve the linear system , where
Paper 1, Section II, C
Part IB, 2020 comment(a) Given a set of distinct real points and real numbers , show that the interpolating polynomial , can be written in the form
where the coefficients are to be determined.
(b) Consider the approximation of the integral of a function by a finite sum,
where the weights and nodes are independent of . Derive the expressions for the weights that make the approximation ( 1 exact for being any polynomial of degree , i.e. .
Show that by choosing to be zeros of the polynomial of degree , one of a sequence of orthogonal polynomials defined with respect to the scalar product
the approximation (1) becomes exact for (i.e. for all polynomials of degree .
(c) On the interval the scalar product (2) generates orthogonal polynomials given by
Find the values of the nodes for which the approximation (1) is exact for all polynomials of degree 7 (i.e. ) but no higher.
Paper 2, Section II, C
Part IB, 2020 commentConsider a multistep method for numerical solution of the differential equation :
where , and and are constants.
(a) Define the order of a method for numerically solving an ODE.
(b) Show that in general an explicit method of the form has order 1 . Determine the values of and for which this multistep method is of order 3 .
(c) Show that the multistep method (*) is convergent.
Paper 1, Section I, H
Part IB, 2020 commentSolve the following Optimization problem using the simplex algorithm:
Suppose the constraints above are now replaced by and . Give an expression for the maximum objective value that is valid for all sufficiently small non-zero and .
Paper 1, Section I, G
Part IB, 2020 commentLet be the open disc with centre and radius 1 , and let be the open lower half plane. Starting with a suitable Möbius map, find a conformal equivalence (or conformal bijection) of onto the open unit disc.
Paper 2, Section II, H
Part IB, 2020 commentState and prove the Lagrangian sufficiency theorem.
Solve, using the Lagrangian method, the optimization problem
where the constants and satisfy and .
[You need not prove that your solution is unique.]
Paper 1, Section I,
Part IB, 2020 commentDefine what it means for an operator to be hermitian and briefly explain the significance of this definition in quantum mechanics.
Define the uncertainty of in a state . If is also a hermitian operator, show by considering the state , where is a real number, that
Hence deduce that
Give a physical interpretation of this result.
Paper 1, Section II, A
Part IB, 2020 commentConsider a quantum system with Hamiltonian and wavefunction obeying the time-dependent Schrödinger equation. Show that if is a stationary state then is independent of time, if the observable is independent of time.
A particle of mass is confined to the interval by infinite potential barriers, but moves freely otherwise. Let be the normalised wavefunction for the particle at time , with
where
and are complex constants. If the energy of the particle is measured at time , what are the possible results, and what is the probability for each result to be obtained? Give brief justifications of your answers.
Calculate at time and show that the result oscillates with a frequency , to be determined. Show in addition that
Paper 2, Section II, A
Part IB, 2020 comment(a) The potential for a particle of mass in one dimension is such that rapidly as . Let be a wavefunction for the particle satisfying the time-independent Schrödinger equation with energy .
Suppose has the asymptotic behaviour
where are complex coefficients. Explain, in outline, how the probability current is used in the interpretation of such a solution as a scattering process and how the transmission and reflection probabilities and are found.
Now suppose instead that is a bound state solution. Write down the asymptotic behaviour in this case, relating an appropriate parameter to the energy .
(b) Consider the potential
where is a real, positive constant. Show that
where is a complex coefficient, is a solution of the time-independent Schrödinger equation for any real and find the energy . Show that represents a scattering process for which , and find explicitly.
Now let in the formula for above. Show that this defines a bound state if a certain real positive value of is chosen and find the energy of this solution.
Paper 1, Section I,
Part IB, 2020 commentSuppose are independent with distribution . Suppose a prior is placed on the unknown parameter for some given deterministic and . Derive the posterior mean.
Find an expression for the mean squared error of this posterior mean when .
Paper 1, Section II, H
Part IB, 2020 commentLet be i.i.d. random variables, where is unknown.
(a) Derive the maximum likelihood estimator of .
(b) What is a sufficient statistic? What is a minimal sufficient statistic? Is sufficient for ? Is it minimal sufficient? Answer the same questions for the sample mean . Briefly justify your answers.
[You may use any result from the course provided it is stated clearly.]
(c) Show that the mean squared errors of and are respectively
(d) Show that for each for a function you should specify. Give, with justification, an approximate confidence interval for whose expected length is
[Hint: for all .]
Paper 2, Section II, H
Part IB, 2020 commentConsider the general linear model where is a known design matrix with is an unknown vector of parameters, and is a vector of stochastic errors with and for all with . Suppose has full column rank.
(a) Write down the least squares estimate of and show that it minimises the least squares objective over .
(b) Write down the variance-covariance matrix .
(c) Let minimise over subject to . Let be the submatrix of that excludes the final column. Write .
(d) Let and be orthogonal projections onto the column spaces of and respectively. Show that for all .
(e) Show that for all ,
[Hint: Argue that for some .]
Paper 2, Section I, D
Part IB, 2020 commentFind the stationary points of the function subject to the constraint , with . What are the maximum and minimum values attained by , subject to this constraint, if we further restrict to ?
Paper 1, Section II, D
Part IB, 2020 commentA motion sensor sits at the origin, in the middle of a field. The probability that you are detected as you sneak from one point to another along a path is
where is a positive constant, is your distance to the sensor, and is your speed. (If for some path then you are detected with certainty.)
You start at point , where . Your mission is to reach the point , where . What path should you take to minimise the chance of detection? Should you tiptoe or should you run?
A new and improved sensor detects you with probability
Show that the optimal path now satisfies the equation
for some constants and that you should identify.
Paper 1, Section II, G
Part IB, 2020 commentLet be an analytic branch of on a domain . Write down an analytic branch of on . Show that if and are two analytic branches of on , then either for all or for all .
Describe the principal value or branch of on . Describe a branch of on .
Construct an analytic branch of on with . [If you choose to use and in your construction, then you may assume without proof that they are analytic.]
Show that for we have . Hence find the first three terms of the Laurent series of about 0 .
Set for and for . Compute the residue of at 0 and use it to compute the integral
Paper 2, Section II, B
Part IB, 2020 commentFor the function
find the Laurent expansions
(i) about in the annulus ,
(ii) about in the annulus ,
(iii) about in the annulus .
What is the nature of the singularity of , if any, at and ?
Using an integral of , or otherwise, evaluate
Paper 2, Section I, D
Part IB, 2020 commentTwo concentric spherical shells with radii and carry fixed, uniformly distributed charges and respectively. Find the electric field and electric potential at all points in space. Calculate the total energy of the electric field.
Paper 1, Section II, D
Part IB, 2020 commentWrite down the electric potential due to a point charge at the origin.
A dipole consists of a charge at the origin, and a charge at position . Show that, at large distances, the electric potential due to such a dipole is given by
where is the dipole moment. Hence show that the potential energy between two dipoles and , with separation , where , is
Dipoles are arranged on an infinite chessboard so that they make an angle with the horizontal in an alternating pattern as shown in the figure. Compute the energy between a given dipole and its four nearest neighbours, and show that this is independent of .
Paper 2, Section II, D
Part IB, 2020 comment(a) A surface current , with a constant and the unit vector in the -direction, lies in the plane . Use Ampère's law to determine the magnetic field above and below the plane. Confirm that the magnetic field is discontinuous across the surface, with the discontinuity given by
where is the unit vector in the -direction.
(b) A surface current flows radially in the plane, resulting in a pile-up of charge at the origin, with , where is a constant.
Write down the electric field due to the charge at the origin, and hence the displacement current .
Confirm that, away from the plane and for , the magnetic field due to the displacement current is given by
where are the usual spherical polar coordinates. [Hint: Use Stokes' theorem applied to a spherical cap that subtends an angle .]
Paper 2, Section I, C
Part IB, 2020 commentIncompressible fluid of constant viscosity is confined to the region between two parallel rigid plates. Consider two parallel viscous flows: flow A is driven by the motion of one plate in the -direction with the other plate at rest; flow B is driven by a constant pressure gradient in the -direction with both plates at rest. The velocity mid-way between the plates is the same for both flows.
The viscous friction in these flows is known to produce heat locally at a rate
per unit volume, where is the -component of the velocity. Determine the ratio of the total rate of heat production in flow A to that in flow B.